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The Art of War: Urban Warfare | Warfronts | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The Art of War: Urban Warfare
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Summary
Core Theme
Urban warfare fundamentally alters the rules of engagement for military conflicts, presenting unique, multi-dimensional challenges that heavily favor defenders and result in attritional battles with significant civilian casualties, regardless of technological advancements.
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what defines a battle from the palace
the Chariots and the horse answer of
ancient history to the siege of forts
and castles to the Advent of tank
submarines and aerial power the
parameters of the battle and indeed of a
war are defined by the tools and tactics
available to each side nations with
powerful navies will seek out Naval
Combat to society from the high
mountains will do their best to fight a
desert adversary in the snow and bitter
cold and well vice versa no matter the
confrontation no matter the conflict
Wars are always defined by the
conditions under which all sides choose
to meet but there's one set of
conditions that lies so far out of the
norm with so many key differences from
any other sort of Battlefield that it
deserves discussion all on its own Urban
Warfare It's been the nightmare of
military planners for centuries and one
that's only gotten worse in the modern
era so why you ask well it rewrites the
Rules of Engagement basically from
scratch whether we're discussing a
military that rely eyes on its close air
support or seeks heavily mechanized tank
engagements or simply hopes to gather
sufficient intelligence before attacking
a Target the unique demands and
conditions of urban Warfare violate
every expectation the battle space
exists in three dimensions at all times
civilians are as common as enemy
combatants mobility and visibility are
severely limited and behind every closed
door is a potentially deadly surprise in
this installment of The Art of War
series from Roar Graphics we're going to
be diving into the tactics the
strategies and the challenges that
Define urban Warfare chart several major
examples through history and take a look
at how this unique environment continues
before we dive in it's important to
discuss just what we mean when we
discuss Urban Warfare which we'll
understand as any combat in any densely
populated or heavily industrialized Zone
this can include large or small cities
downed industrial areas and even suburbs
in some circumstance
The crucial piece is the presence of
significant enough human construction be
it skyscrapers or factories or whatever
else that many tactics of conventional
Warfare are just no longer relevant this
tactical disruption means that any
conventional militaries trying to attack
or defend a city are at least somewhat
out of their element whatever policies
and guidebooks they ordinarily rely on
those guides are probably going to be
insufficient and with some exceptions
the majority of troops aren't going to
be personally familiar with the demands
of urban combat this is a massive issue
because Urban Warfare Stacks risks on
top of risks on top of risk in a way
that no other theater even comes close
to touching as for what those risks are
let's just run through a few to start as
we mentioned in the introduction Urban
environments typically include a high
saturation of civilians with limited
time and ability to distinguish between
them and enemy combatants often this
problem is made worse by the deliberate
use of civilians as human Shields
especially by a defending military force
entrench within the city even if they
aren't held as hostages civilians are
often unwilling to evacuate or might
help a local defending force and
whenever violence breaks out they're
likely to be caught in the crossfire the
urban landscape also makes movement of
heavy Weaponry extremely difficult for
example good luck getting any use out of
your tanks when they have to move single
file down a narrow Street surrounded on
all sides by windows that make a perfect
vantage point for snipers and Rockets
this problem also applies when trying to
move any significant number of troops
especially while attacking a city and
attempting to probe unknown defenses
urban areas strongly favor a defending
force and one of the major reasons for
that is the lack of cover concealment
and positional awareness for an attacker
the defending side is likely to know
every Alleyway every sewer and every
rooftop while the attacking side is
lucky if they have an accurate map at
the streets the attacker completely
forfeits the element of surprise while
having no way to tell whether they're
walking into a trap at any moment now
let's talk about perhaps not only does
an attacking Force have a very difficult
time knowing where an enemy is set up
defensive positions but those defensive
positions are protected by thick
concrete steel beams and interior
architecture that makes every floor of
every building into a maze this creates
endless opportunities for the defending
forces to set up booby traps explosive
devices Vision impairing devices like
smoke bombs or Ambush sites that the
attacking Force just cannot anticipate
for an attacking Army small unit
formations are often the only way to
move troops into a thickly settled Urban
environment but they also leave the
soldiers in those small units isolated
and blind to their surroundings with the
defending force that just sees them
coming modern military's post-world War
One have another layer of complications
to worry about and it's a problem that's
gotten worse as those militaries grow
more advanced while air power is an
immensely valuable tool in most fields
of battle it's limited at Best in an
urban environment enemy positions are
typically concentrated under the cover
of buildings which both resist close air
support and strafing fire and make the
positions themselves difficult to see
and anything less precise than strafing
runs a potentially disastrous
indiscriminate bombing campaigns are
likely to kill large numbers of
civilians as are rocket and missile
strikes and though historical examples
like the bombing of Tokyo and Dresden in
World War II clearly indicate that
attacking forces don't always avoid Mass
civilian casualties those are also
examples that don't include the
attackers pushing ground troops into the
same city as soon as that happens any
Air Attack large enough to cause
collateral damage also presents a
significant risk of Friendly Fire and
then there's the Grim Reaper of urban Warfare
Warfare
upon yet the snipers to get a picture of
just how devastating and ubiquitous
sniper fire can be imagine standing on a
busy street in whatever major city
you're closest to and the literal
thousands of Windows that you can see
from the sidewalk in an urban Warfare
environment every single one of those
windows is a potential vantage point for
a sniper and there can be dozens of
snipers in those windows at any given
time they can operate completely alone
and if the attacking force can even spot
which window a sniper is firing from
they're likely to be gone by the time
the attacker gets there for a defending
Force snipers are a massive Force
multiplier in individual snipers
throughout history have logged kill
counts deep into the triple digits even
if those Sharpshooters are anomaly it's
not hard to imagine that the average
cyber might be responsible for a dozen
or more enemy deaths over the course of
a city defense multiply that number by
the number of snipers a defending Force
might have in the field and the death
toll spirals out of control and even
with these compound founding
frustrations we're still not done adding
obstacles for the attacking side not
only do aggressors in urban Warfare
forfeit much of their equipment but they
also need other specialized equipment at
odd and unpredictable times take night
vision goggles as an example wherein
most other combat scenarios it's usually
a safe assumption that they'll be needed
at night this isn't the case in an urban
environment where a building's
windowless interior can plunge an
attacker into complete darkness on a
moment's notice even worse Urban Warfare
poses a strong likelihood of at least
some Subterranean fighting be it ensuers
or parking garages or Subway systems
here complete darkness incomplete maps
and spatial disorientation make an
attacking Force even more vulnerable we
could repeat this process with a range
of other technology with most modern
examples including robotic platforms and
see-through Wall Equipment these might
make an attacker's job a little bit
easier but aren't well developed or
widely available in the best of
circumstances and we're still not done
frankly we could spend an hour to
talking through all of the complications
to Urban Warfare that we haven't even
mentioned yet but in the interest of
time we'll give you some quick hits
instead Close Quarters combat is often
an afterthought for professional
militaries but with one-on-one
engagements taking place in a square as
small as your bathroom soldiers without
hand-to-hand training are grossly
underprepared so are soldiers who
haven't had the opportunity or Reason to
drill procedures to clear a room breach
door or maneuver around each other in
small areas simple means of concealment
like tarps and rooftops deeply
complicate intelligence gathering by an
attacking side while Defenders can store
caches of resources and weapons all
around a city moving freely between them
in order to never run out of supply and
the vending side has pull access to
civilian materials like large vehicles
or concrete traffic barriers which can
be pushed into the streets in order to
block off certain areas or guide
attackers toward a trap now it should be
Crystal Clear by this point that Urban
Warfare overwhelmingly favors the
defending side especially when that
defending force is posted in a city that
they they know well where they can rely
on a helpful civilian population as such
Urban defensive tactics lean heavily on
the defender's ability to use their
environment as a weapon and to
constantly think creatively about how to
inflict the greatest number of
casualties on an attacker for the
attacking side tactics and strategy
alike are all about minimal loss if the
defender is entrenched in an urban
environment and the attacker isn't
willing to just level the city then the
attacker will absorb truly staggering
losses relative to what the defending
side has to endure after the urban
battles of World War II military
Doctrine generally states that at least
six attacking troops are needed for each
single Defender within a city no amount
of careful consideration can turn the
situation to the attacker's favor and
even in the best case scenario the
attacking side is walking into a meat grinder
ancient historical examples of what we
would now consider Urban Warfare are
relatively uncommon for a few key
reasons historical attackers had a far
better chance at starving out a city
through Siege tactics before modern
non-perishable food was available and in
many parts of the world military Forts
and castles were either kept separate
from cities or used to concentrate
battles in one area in those cities the
demands of melee-based warfare also made
it much more important to mass
information as Defender as a single
fighter charging an enemy Squadron with
a sword doesn't really hit the same way
as a sniper at 200 meters although it
was certainly not uncommon for cities
and towns to be sacked after they were
captured it was far more likely that the
defending force would win or lose on the
outskirts of the city leaving it
undefended when that pillage ultimately
did take place true Urban Warfare was a
rare occurrence and whatever did go on
it's unlikely that the historical
sources of the day stuck around to see
it the phenomenon of urban battles
became far more prominent in the years
after the Napoleonic Wars as both cities
in and military tactics evolved an
eliminating example comes from the
Battle of Monterey during the
Mexican-American War as a force of over
6 000 men led by Major General Zachary
Taylor marched on the town of Monterey
it was protected by over 5000 Mexican
Defenders under a commander Pedro de
amputer who saw Monterey as a defensive
Advantage rather than a challenge and
pewter quickly fortified Monterey
establishing a base of commands within
its unfinished Cathedral the American
forces were unprepared for a Siege and
planned for an assault with infantry but
the early stages of the fighting saw the
Americans Court exposed while trying to
cross Open Fields wide streets and a
nearby River this was an early example
of the devastating cost Urban Warfare
inflicts on an attacker but also
provided a platform for Innovations
Tyler's second attack two days later
quickly assimilated the lessons that
he'd learned this time the Americans
avoided open streets and engaged the
Mexicans house to house blasting through
the walls of R1 building to get to the
next Taylor also recognized the acute
risk of Civilian casualties and was
ultimately able to force a surrender on
mutually agreeable terms although rural
Warfare was far more common in the 19th
century the American Civil War and
franco-prussian War each contributed
their own early examples of urban
Warfare reinforcing the importance of
the tactics and strategy that we've
already discussed and while the first
world war sought far more in the way of
cities and Villages being destroyed than
actual urban combat the second world war
was very much the opposite in fact it
was World War II that really defined
what Modern urban Warfare was going to
be like the month-long Battle of
Stalingrad was perhaps the most defining
Urban Battle of the entire War fought
between hundreds of thousands of troops
from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
the Nazis attacked Stalingrad with no
intention of holding back and leveled
much of the city with artillery foreign
Air Raids but this bombardment came as
refugees were streaming into Stalingrad
not out of it and because of this the
city's Soviet Defenders were unwilling
to give up their positions instead they
reacted by transforming the
half-standing city into a death trap
fortifying it with minefields bunkers
and tank and Hillary defenses set within
buildings Nazi forces pushed into the
City and for months they and the Soviets
engaged in a horrific Battle of
attrition eventually the Nazis were able
to use their limited air power and heavy
machinery to wear down the Soviets but
Soviet forces incurred Mass casualties
nonetheless in a series of events well
hold off describing for time's sake and
please note we've done a video on the
defense of Stalingrad on the mega
projects channel the Soviets were able
to regain the offensive and after months
of frustration they turned their City
into a killing field the Soviet soldiers
split into hundreds of Highly mobile
squads some 50 to 100 troops each and
then into innumerable tiny squadrons of
three to five men each those squadrons
moved freely within the rubble and what
remained of the burned out husks of
buildings doing unfathomable damage via
sniper fire and hand-to-hand combat
other Soviet troops dug their tanks into
rubble and camouflaged them only firing
their weapons when enemy tanks were
right on top of them the months entire
platoons on both sides would lay down
their lives to capture a one floor of a
building here one hollowed-out Warehouse
there and the fighting was coupled by
Russia's worst winter in decades by
February the Nazis surrendered with
total casualties from the battle
estimated at 400
000 Germans and three quarter of a
million Soviets leading to the Pacific
Theater there's one example of urban
Warfare that stands Above the Rest the
Battle of Manila which took place over a
one-month period in 1945. as the center
of power in the Philippines Manila was
crucial to the crumbling Japanese war
effort and when Allied Forces attempted
to lay Siege to the city its Japanese
Defenders responded with brutal force at
the time some 1 million Filipino
citizens were still inside Manila and
when Japanese forces realized they
couldn't strike outward at the Allies
they instead struck inward men women
children were forced to endure not just
their role as human Shields under
artillery bombardment but systematic
mass murder rape and torture at the
hands of Japanese Marines the accounts
of these atrocities are truly horrific
to read and probably deserve a video of
their own when the Allies did attempt to
take the city directly they did so
through brutal street fighting moving
house to house in what used to be a city
when the Allies finally prevailed they
handed the residents back a piece of
land that was little more than rubble
and corpses the Cold War and its many
proxy conflicts would see no shortage of
urban Warfare themselves but stay with
us as we bypass those examples and head
straight to the 1990s more specifically
the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian
War although Bosnian Serb forces were
able to successfully besiege the city of
Sarajevo in 1992. they lacked the
manpower to take the city outright and
instead resorted to an offensive use of
urban Warfare tactics to grind the city
down to nothing we've belabored the
point already that Urban Warfare tends
to strongly favor the defender but in
this case the Bosnian serve attackers
used the city to their advantage amidst
indiscriminate shelling which often
targeted schools and hospitals a legion
of Bosnian Serb snipers spread
throughout the city not only did those
snipers kill thousands of civilians but
they forced the rest of the city's
residents to starve rather than attempt
to find food water or sources of heat
they also turned certain streets into
so-called sniper alleys where anyone
brave enough to pass would almost
certainly be killed for their trouble
The Siege wouldn't lift for years near
the end of the Cedric Sarajevo a
similarly devastating battle was taking
place from 2 000 kilometers away in the
city of grozny the capital of Russia's
semi-autonomous Republic of chechnya in
this three-week battle Chechen
guerrillas Ward with an unprepared force
of Russian troops with half a million
Chechen civilians caught in the middle
the chechens were the defending side and
as such they were able to incur major
losses on the Russian side within the
first few days of the conflict the
Russians had little preparation or
education on how to properly engage in
urban combat and their troops tanks and
armored vehicles alike were left exposed
for Chechen rocket-propelled grenades to
destroy conversely the chechens are able
to set ambushes use subterranean
advantages like pursuer and Metro
systems and rearrange street signs in
order to cause confusion and fool the
Russians in a friendly fire incidents
realizing that they weren't ready to
take rosny outright the Russians
resorted to 20 days of artillery
shelling once the city had been
adequately tenderized they were able to
attack again this time the chechens
responded with decentralized Force
carried out by snipers and men in small
units and again incurred serious losses
on their enemy at every turn by the end
of the battle Russian forces were able
to secure grozny but many of the
chechens were already gone and they
would use these tactics in one city
after another across their region
deliberately drawing Russian soldiers in
the historical examples that we've
covered Charter clear course of progress
and Innovation when it comes to
individual tactics within Urban Warfare
but they are also a sobering reminder of
just how little room there is for change
within Urban
regardless of any evolution
how war is more broadly fought automatic
weapons don't matter much if you're
still aiming up at seemingly empty
Windows air support isn't much good if
you want to avoid civilian casualties
and it doesn't matter how shiny and new
your tanks are if they're going to be
blown up by RPGs while traveling single
file down Main Street and as we move
into Modern urban battles it should
quickly become clear that this set of
rules isn't changing anytime soon and I
believe us we'll take the liberation of
muscle Iraq which took place over the
course of several months in 2016 and
2017. during this battle over a hundred
thousand U.S bagged Iraqi troops
attempted to take muscle back from
between 5 and 12 000 Defenders fighting
for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
U.S planners assisted in the iraqi's
preparations with their objective being
to First isolate the city and then to
clear it neighborhood by neighborhood
using as much caution as possible this
was known as The Bite clear and hold
model establish a perimeter around a
neighborhood thus biting down on its
penetrate into it with Special
Operations troops and technicians
cleaning it of Fighters and booby traps
and then move on while infantry forces
established a lasting security but as
you can probably see coming by now the
Islamic State Defenders used their
advantageous position for all it was
worth they used copious amounts of heavy
Weaponry employed suicide bombers
deployed cheap and Expendable drones and
used the tried and true methods of urban
defense in order to slow down the
Coalition forces it was by no means a
clean process but for months Islamic
State Fighters were able to withdraw
from neighborhoods before they were
overrun or pinned down they also used
civilians liberally as human Shields
forcibly recruited child soldiers and
civilians and even deployed chemical
weapons during the defense eventually
Coalition forces boxed the Islamic State
Fighters into tightly and despite heavy
casualties even in the last days of
fighting they were able to declare
Victory nine months after the battle had
begun in all the liberation of muscle
would claim more than ten thousand
civilians it displaced 2 million more
and large parts of the city and all this
for Coalition forces to overcome an
Islamic State Defense that utilized
perhaps one-tenth of the troops that the
Coalition did even since then Urban
Warfare has been Central to conflicts in
Libya yeben and elsewhere but would be
remiss not to mention the biggest most
glaring example of all Ukraine and
despite a wide range of examples
including intense fighting that is still
ongoing today in Ukraine's Eastern
regions it's the siege of the city of
marapol that we're going to focus on
beginning with the blockade that started
on March the 2nd 2022 the port city of
maripol and its half million residents
were besieged by invading Russian forces
despite the large number of civilians
within the city Russia continually
bombarded it destroying Power and Water
infrastructure shelling civilian areas
and bombarding Unthinkable targets like
a maternity hospital and a theater that
had been clearly marked as a site where
children were taking Shelter by
mid-march Russian troops had begun to
enter the city with tactics and
Leadership that were clearly informed by
the lessons learned from attacking
grozny and elsewhere despite Ukrainian
soldiers Mass efforts to limit civilian
casualties the fighting destroyed a
large portion of marapol and the
Russians were able to take most of the
city the surviving Defenders along with
over a thousand civilians were boxed in
at the azovsdal iron and steelworks
planter 10 square kilometer sprawl of
workshops houses and tunnels although
the Defenders at the plant were
eventually forced to surrender they held
out for the better part of three months
and if it were not for Russia's complete
disregard for the well-being of
civilians they likely could have lasted longer
foreign
as we look into the future toward not
just a continuation of the war in
Ukraine but potential flashpoints like
Taiwan the Korean Peninsula Armenia and
Azerbaijan and the Kashmir region it's
reasonable to expect that Urban combat
will remain an unavoidable element to
Modern War and as are examples today
have Illustrated there's only so much
that enhancements in technology can do
to alter the urban battle Space by its
nature Urban combat is deeply resistant
to new tactics from an aggressor even
while it is a hotbed of innovation for a
Defender after all there are only so
many ways to try and infiltrate such a
complex Target and endless ways to use
confusion versatility and the fog of War
to a defender's Advantage more than
anything engagement in urban Warfare is
a series of promises whatever battle
this is will become a war of attrition
there will be civilian casualties the
attacking side will be punished
relentlessly for their efforts and the
city the town or the industrial zone of
interest will become a hellscape for
those who have the choice Urban combat
is a nightmare to be avoided at all
costs and for those who find themselves
stuck inside it Urban combat is a
nightmare one that they in their
comrades will be very very lucky to survive
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